Just thought I mention that my review of the masterful America is up over at 411mania. Hope you like it.
All feedback appericated and sought
Will
Link: The Greatest Comic Story Ever
...FANTASTIC review, must go and reread it, right now, bot what do you think of the follow up to America?...
Its very, very close to being a worthy sequel but MacNeil decison not to paint it and then thet DIRE colouring kind of lessens the impacts. Extremely frustrating as you can just see the classic underneath the day-glow colouring with Wagner developing (from a slightly less promising premise) quite a moving and thoughtful story with the ending being a clever way to deliever a happy, constructive ending. In addition its a natural sequel (unlike say DKR2) in that it does work with the conventions of the original and maintains a similar tone. Its just a shame that the colouring lets it down especially as in parts you can really see MacNeil's linework as being even better than in America.
Glad you like the review and thanks for the feedback.
Will
Excellent review! I enjoyed reading it.
It'd be even better if you could check through for garbled sentences. Several times I had to stop and work out what you were trying to say.
This stood out:
"Wagner doing to Dredd what The Dark Knight Returns does to Batman. And that is no understatement by the way"
I think you meant overstatement.
To be fair to the reader you should have mentioned Craddock's fugly colouring in the sequel as it is a huge turn off for anyone with eyesight. I really can't understand why they wouldn't just reprint it as line art.
This is the greatest comic story ever. That?s not hyperbole.
Yes it is.
M@
Some die-hard Dredd fans would argue The Apocalypse War is the greatest comic story. But TAW is a conventional war story, whereas America is a powerful critique of fascism. They are very different. Depends what you want from Dredd, I guess.
...have just reread this classic tale, something has occured to me that i never noticed before, in part 5 Ami crawls out of the blasted hovercar, a small trail of blood trailing behind her, its not clear if its her whos hurt or just blood from the other bodies in the vehicle. She then goes on to climb the steps to the Statue of Liberty in part 6 and then is shot by an over zealous judge, so why have the line a little latter about 'a lump of getaway vehicle was lodged in Ami's skull, she was dead before she reached hospital' so why put in the judge shotting bit if it diidnt kill her?...
...my mistake, mean part 5 for 6, and part 6 for 7...
I wouldn't worry.:) Just enjoy the story.
Yeah that's a bad typo, I really do proof read but its difficult to proof read your own work esp. on computer and as I have no copy editor/mates who are into comics I fear that typos are going to continue.
I didn't mention Craddock's colouring because I didn't review the sequel. I had orignally planned to review the whole tpb but it was 2,600 words and 8.30 at night and I needed to do Big Dave as well ( I was two days past the deadline to boot) when I finished saying what I had to about America so I changed the review to just America. Personally whilst the colouring is awful and I wished they'd done it as line art or better yet get MacNeil to paint it the story itself is still good and I'd personally pay 20quid for America on its own.
Thanks for the positive feedback, glad you liked it.
Will
By that statement I meant that I'm not inflating my opinion of the comic to hook the reader into the review this is what I actually think.
And I stand by it as being the greatest comic story just because it excels in three very distinctive mature-comics genres-franchise character deconstruction, personal/character stories and political analysis plus it has fantastic art.
In addition and I think I forgot to mention this in the review but if you compare this as Wagner's statement on Dredd with what Miller does with Batman in DKR you see how good the writing is. To deliever the definite statement on Batman Miller relies on a lot of crutches or props from the character's history i.e. Two-Face, Joker, Catwoman, Robin and so forth to add to the story the resonance that he wants it to possess. Wagner manages to deliever an even more powerful summary of the essence of Dredd and his world without resorting to the use of any of Dredd's established background cast. To me that's extremely impressive.
Will
If think the idea is that it shows the violence and hatred that the frontline Judges have for dems (and remember this would have been in the aftermath of the Grice plot against the "moderate" Dredd). The fact that she was already dying just underscored the pointlessness and unjustified nature of the shots. Also the idea of America, fatally woundered desperately trying to fly her flag whilst her enemies take pot shots my in some minds have metaphorical potency.
Will
America is a wonderful story and is one of the books I give to those patronising people who don't understand why a 31 year old teacher like me would choose to read comics. I feel it gives them an insight as to how powerful and intelligent the medium can be ('From Hell' is another fave).
To me, America will always be Dredd's crowning moment and at present my lovely Titan 'Apocolypse War' gn stays on my bookshelf for me to enjoy when I'm feeling a little nostalgic and no more.
Pete